Tuesday, November 5, 2013

I received an email today letting me know my doll that I made for the Houston Quilt Show will be on her way home tomorrow.

The Material Girls have put pictures of all the dolls on their flickr site and all the dolls are just so amazing. I really need to go to Houston next year to see this exhibit as well as all the amazing quilts.

Just wanted to put up the address to see the dolls, for anyone who reads this and is interested. By the way, don't know what happened to my doll, probably wasn't packed right. Her head is facing straight up, I'll be packing the dolls myself from now on.

The Houston International Quilt Festival opens today through Sunday for the public.

I was honored to be asked again to make a doll for this event. For some reason, Mother Earth jumped into my mind. I was asked last spring so I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do.

She is an original design, not my thing, but I was pleased with the way she turned out There was a lot of trial and error but I think her dimensions are pretty close to where they should be. I didn't want to do anything dramatic with this doll like a larger head or long legs. I do like that look on dolls, just not on this one.

I found this fabric in my stash that I had bought a couple of years ago, and I was all set. Everything else fell into place. Her hair is goat hair that I had bought from Doll Makers Journey a few years ago and was waiting for the right doll to use it on. The hair is long and almost has the consistency of human hair, so I knew I would be able to braid it. I got bouquets of silk flowers that had small flowers on it, not as easy as it sounds! I went to JoAnn's,Michaels, Hobby Lobby and Pat Catan's to accomplish this. And I got a bunch of velvet leaves from Joggles in a variety of colors and after playing around with the placement of the leaves and flowers I came up with the leaf peplum for the back and then leaves and flowers around her waist.

I found her stand at JoAnn's, it was perfect. It was a slice of tree with the bark still on. She needs to have a stand for exhibition. Then I glued moss to the base and she has dowels in her legs and they are attached to holes that I drilled into the wood plank. I added some birds at her feet. I sculpted her toes and colored her nails but you can't see them.

The base of her head piece is tulle that I folded a few time and is about an inch wide. I was able to glue and tack on the flowers to that and then tack it to her head.

Lastly, the butterfly was attached to a covered wire which I wrapped around her finger.

I received an email from Laura of Material Girls who co-ordinated the receiving of all the dolls for the "Celebration of the Doll exhibit and the Material Girls club displays them along with the Material Girls exhibit and Treasure of the Gypsy challenge as well as the TAODA Exhibit. I was assured that she arrived safely, I was so worried it was crazy. I'll see in a couple of weeks when she returns how she faired on her trip.

This is the most elaborate doll I have made, from the designing of the doll and costume to the embellishing. And as with all my pictures, they never really do the doll justice, she looks so much better in person.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

I can't believe how long it has been since I have posted. I haven't been totally slacking off though. So, ok... I told you about Ed's eye surgery, well a few weeks after the doctor gave him the "all is good" the retina detached again. Scar tissue had built up and pulled off the other side of the retina. He was at the Optometrist getting a contact lens for the eye that had surgery. And he told her his eye felt funny last night and the shadow was there so she called in another doctor to look at it and sure enough he said the retina had detached. So they had a surgeon waiting up in Cleveland for him and Ed drove home to get me and I rushed him up to Cleveland and they rushed him into surgery. His surgeon from the first time was out of the country, but his partner did the surgery. He is still recuperating for another week although not as restricted as last time. WOW, this is getting boring.
But I have spent most of the last month working on my doll for the Houston International Quilt Show which I believe is the first weekend in November.

Close up of face

Close up of her book

The doll needed to be shipped by October 10 but I was able to get her out last week. I will post a picture of her later when it is closer to the show. She is there only for display, but I designed her myself and she is so pretty.

So after I finished my doll, her name is "Mother Earth" by the way, I continued on with "Waiting Up", who has no name yet. She was a lot of fun to make. First the chair was a lot of fun then making the doll and making her clothes. I love making clothes for my dolls. Her robe felt so warm and comfy in my hands I think I am going to make one for myself.
I used sheep hair that had been dyed. I got the hair at AFIC a couple of years ago. It comes from a local farmer. It was a little difficult to work with on this doll, but she certainly looks like she has "bed head". And lastly the little book was a fun little thing to make. It is just mat board covered in a piece of scrapbook paper with a decoration on the front and I used velvet ribbon for the spine. You can't see it but it has pages in it. I used some vellum that had seeds embedded into it. She was a fun doll to make.
I'm debating what to make next. I have a couple of Christmas dolls that I want to make so I should probably start those. So many projects, so little time.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

I finished my chair. That was a lot of fun to make. Even though it was a little painful I enjoyed the hand sewing, and there was a lot. The chair arms and the cording was hot glued on and that was a bit of a mess. My glue gun is ancient and cheap, I need to invest in something better. I'm pleased with the way it came out. Can't wait to make the doll, her clothes co-ordinate with the colors in the chair!

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

I started a new doll class - wish I would finish up the projects that I have to do first. My doll for the Houston International Quilt show is laying in pieces on my sewing table. I have her all made in my head which really doesn't help. I need to work on her but I wanted to start this class.

If you haven't seen this class, it is a doll by Cindee Moyer named "Waiting Up" where the doll falls asleep waiting up for their child to come home from their night out. I think most of us can relate.

First you make the chair that the doll is sitting in. I decided to start that because I needed to do something different for a while. Here are a couple of pictures of the chair so far. The front side of the pieces had the fabric glued on and the back side where sewn on by hand. My little arthritic fingers are so sore! Now I have the pieces pinned together and they get sewn on by hand also, so I wanted to give my fingers a break and I took a couple of pictures. They're not the best pictures because it is 11 in the morning and totally dark outside. We are having thunderstorms and it is pouring rain and hot and humid. But the room was really dark so I have overhead lights on and the table lamp is on, that is why there is a bright spot. Anyway, I thought this fabric was so pretty, I got it at JoAnn's it is upholstery fabric, thank goodness they were having a 60% off sale. I bought a yard of it so I could fussy cut it. Here is a view of the front, then the back. I'll take another picture when I sew these together and put the seat and trim on.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

I was going along pretty well finishing up my WIPS, but then my grandson came to visit, a few days later we went on vacation and a few days after returning home my husband had surgery for a detached retina. After surgery he was in bed for 2 weeks, face down and I had all the house duties plus waiting on him and giving his medications and taking care of our crazy dogs. I was a bit stressed. But, he is getting better thank goodness because his eye was in really bad shape. He was very close to going blind in that eye.

So things are getting back to normal, whatever that is, and I made a doll for a friend of mine. She loves to see pictures of my dolls and is always talking about them to me and anyone else who will listen - so funny. I made her a doll years ago when I first started and we both thought it was great, but I've been thinking lately she needs something more sophisticated.

This is my interpretation of Cindee Moyer's "Violet Shadows". Violet Shadows is a tree looking up into the moonlight.

I didn't paint the fabric like Cindee did. I found some batik that looked like tree branches and used that. My friend also likes dark colors so I used this gray. I think she came out great. I have some other batik fabric that I am going to use when I make my doll. It is yellows and oranges and touches of purple. It will be more like a sunset than moonlight.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

This is my latest doll that I have finished. The poor thing has been sitting around for a year and a half. She was about 80% done, but then got pushed to the side for other projects.
She was an online class and is designed by Cindee Moyer and called I Hope You Dance. I'm really happy with the way she turned out. It's funny, I had to take her head off after it was all done and replace it. The original head was horrible, not the face - I liked that, it was the overlay of fabric that was a mess. I have since made a few more of Cindee's dolls and I'm getting much better at the overlay and meeting the seam up under her chin. I'm glad I made her a new head, the old one really bothered me.
She is really cute. Now I am down to 2 dolls that are started and waiting to be finished. I may make a new doll first, just to do something different.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

I finished my Mystery Doll!! She is a doll created by Colleen Babcock last fall. Colleen was so generous to design this doll and sell it for $3 originally and the doll was revealed in chapters each week on a Yahoo Group. It wasn't intended to be an online class, but poor Colleen, it kind of ended up that way. It was intended to be revealed little by little then a picture of the finished doll was the last chapter revealed, ergo the "Mystery".
I tried to keep up but it was in the fall when I had classes to go to, so they took priority, still have one of those dolls to finish too - sigh!
Anyway, the doll was originally designed to be like an Advent Calendar but I chose to make my doll with a Winter theme so it wasn't so specific. I have pictures of her in earlier posts in progress. Then life got in the way and when I got back to her last week I decided to just finish her up. I put a little Cardinal on her finger, to match her skirt fabric. I loved using the netting for her bun. That was a very effective look. And the hat was so cute to make, fairly easy, but a lot of hand sewing.
I really love this doll. I love dolls with a lot of detail, and boy, does this doll have detail! Thanks Colleen!!! (I know I'm really late, sorry.)

Side note... this is my first post with my new iMac. Yeah!! I needed a new computer desperately so I decided to try a Mac. I think it fits me more with what I do nowadays. I got a 27" monitor so I could read everything. Sadly, I still need glasses to read the screen, oh boy, got to get myself to the eye doctor. Anyway, I hope this post turns out ok and looks ok. I need more classes at the Apple store, especially for the pictures!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

My former doll club, Time For Dolls, brought in a teacher every year and last year in October we had Christine Shively who taught Dress Rehearsal. She was a fun doll to make, but oh so detailed! You could make one of two sizes, I chose to make the bigger doll, just because I like bigger dolls and I thought this doll would be a lot easier to work with if it was bigger.
I had the embroidered and beaded piece of fabric, that is in the front, for a long time so I decided this was the doll to use that fabric on. That set the color scheme of black and white with gold accents. The white on the pants and shoes is a moire silk that I purchased in Denver last August and the black on the pants and shoes is a black dupioni that I purchased in Denver at Denver Fabrics (a great store!) By the way, the Denver Fabrics that you see online is not the Denver Fabrics retail store.

Dress Rehersal

They told me they sold the naming rights years ago, because they didn't want to sell online anymore. I digress! The sheer polka dot fabric I used for her sleeves is fabric I bought from Treasures of the Gypsy at AFIC 2 years ago. The hat and shoulder pieces are cottons that I had. And, I did all the gold picot beading by hand.
Christine stayed at my home while she was here teaching and she was so delightful! After the last day of class she spent time in her room making the mask for me as a gift for having her, which was absolutely my pleasure to do. She surprised me with it the next morning, I can't tell you how happy I was, first because it was so thoughtful and second because I really didn't want to make it on my own (shhhh!)
I'm happy with her from the neck down. Painting a flat face is so difficult for me, it's not horrendous but it's not good. But, that's her face!! The Tibetan lamb that I used was

Front piece and shoulder detail

awful, the hairs were short and went in all different directions. She is definitely having a bad hair day.
I'm glad to have finished a doll that was 80% done but sitting around for 8 months. I have a few more like that, so on to the next one.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

I finished my Princess and the Pea doll, designed by Cindee Moyer. It was from an online class at Joggles that was a Christmas gift from my husband.
It was a lot of fun to make, so many different techniques.
The bed is made of wire then covered with pages from an old book and mod podge, then I painted it silver metallic but that was way too bright so I dry brushed on some black paint and it was perfect. I used a furry fleece for the carpet. It gives it a shag carpet effect. The bed skirt and mattresses are all in cottons. Her gown is a pink poly with an overlay of a sheer white-on-white embroidered organza.
So cute, I'm really happy with her. I just love Cindee's designs.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

I finally finished my Lillian and Max doll. This was an online class that was taught by Cindee Moyer. It was a Christmas gift from my husband. So I dropped everything I was working on and worked on this doll. It took a little longer than it should have because the dog is clay. I've only used clay a couple of times so it really gave me pause (or paws, pun intended!). But I finally worked up the courage and just went for it. He isn't very smooth but it's not noticeable because he is covered in strips of paper. I actually enjoyed working with the clay, I just have to do it more often. Overall, I'm pleased. What I really can't believe is that this is the first doll that I have completed since last August. I have 5 other dolls that are 75% - 90% finished, but, NOT finished.
Another great design from Cindee, I just love her designs!!
Taking a little vacation then hopefully more dolls to come.

Friday, March 22, 2013

Here is Lillian finished. I thought this fabric would be great for her coat. She has pearl-like buttons down the front, and is sporting a feather collar and cuffs. Although as I look at these pictures, the feathers seem to be "out of control"! But they don't look like that in person. I took a close up of her boots. It took me a week to make them and they are painted on but have a heel made of clay, then felt on the bottom for a sole. It was the clay-I don't know why but it scared me to death. So crazy, I'm just not use to using clay and it was such a tiny piece that if it didn't turn out ok I could make 20 more if I had to. It's just a mind block that I have to get over because I actually enjoyed working with the clay, which is a good thing because her dog is covered in clay. YIKES!! Actually, I am looking forward to making the dog, after all it is only clay over an armature. And if I have to make 10 dogs then I make 10 dogs - practice makes perfect!

Monday, March 11, 2013

I haven't posted anything for a while, but after I got over my winter blues in December and January where I didn't even walk into my sewing room and was sick for 3 weeks in February, I am sewing again.
I decided not to go to any doll classes or workshops this year since I went to so many last year, I got a little burnt out (and poor!). So my plan was to finish the dolls that are at least half done, and work on some doll classes I bought online last year that I haven't even touched. Well... for Christmas I put 2 online doll classes on my wish list at Joggles and my husband gave me those for Christmas. The first one has started and I am trying to stay up with the class because he keeps asking me about it. It is Lillian and Max by Cindee Moyer and my second gift class starts in the beginning of April and that is The Princess and the Pea also by Cindee Moyer (love her dolls!!). So I wanted to show you my progress on Lillian. She has a beautiful shade of blue dupioni silk dress, that won't be seen when it is finished, so I had to take a picture. Then I had a little trouble fitting her little hat so I gave her a hair weft to fill in the hat. But I like her progress so far.

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About Me

I am a cloth doll maker. I have designed a few dolls but the majority of my dolls are from patterns or online classes. I feel there is enough room for interpretation with patterns and online classes to make the dolls my own.